Optical ultracompact directional antenna based on a dimer nanorod structure

TL;DR

This paper proposes a compact optical nanoantenna design using a gold nanorod dimer that achieves unidirectional emission, addressing size and complexity issues of previous designs for nanophotonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, ultracompact optical antenna based on a simple dimer structure that is robust and feasible for experimental implementation.

Findings

Unidirectional emission achieved with a gold nanorod dimer.

Design robustness to shape, defects, and emitter positioning.

Potential for integration into nanophotonic devices.

Abstract

Controlling directionality of optical emitters is of utmost importance for their application in communication and biosensing devices. Metallic nanoantennas have been proven to affect both excitation and emission properties of nearby emitters, including directionality of their emission. In this regard, optical directional nanoantennas based on a Yagi-Uda design have been demonstrated in the visible range. Despite this impressive proof of concept, their overall size and considerable number of elements represent obstacles for the exploitation of these antennas in nanophotonic applications and for their incorporation onto photonic chips. In order to address these challenges, we investigate an alternative design. In particular, we numerically demonstrate unidirectionality of an ultracompact optical antenna based on two parallel gold nanorods (side-by-side dimer). Our results show that exciting the antiphase mode by an emitter placed in the near-field can lead to unidirectional emission. Furthermore, in order to verify the feasibility of this design, we study the effect on the directionality of several parameters such as shape of the nanorods, possible defects in dimer assembly, and different position and orientation of the emitter. We conclude that this design is robust to changes, making it experimentally achievable.